Canada's Top 5 Destinations
for Seniors
Coast to coast, Canada blesses seniors with great places to indulge
in their passions. If you're young at heart, these highlights are
for you. So start packing!
BY TOBY SALTZMAN

Vancouver Island: For seekers of well-being
Far from the madding crowd and fringed by coastal beauty, Vancouver
Island is a haven for pampering your mind, body, and soul with luxurious
spa establishments dedicated to rejuvenation. In Victoria, two hotels
house specialty spas. After tennis at the Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe
Resort & Spa, unwind with a deep-scalp massage at its European-style
spa. Guests at the Fairmont Empress Hotel's Willow Stream Spa dip
into its mineral pool before indulging in limb-soothing manicures
and pedicures that leave the arms and legs massaged, exfoliated,
and creamed with emollients, and the nails immaculately painted.

Treatments are sublime at the Aerie Resort and Spa, high in the
Malahat Mountains. Succumb to a slathering wrap of seaweed and glacial
mud, a facial fragrant with distilled orange petals, and a gently
kneading massage that turns the skin soft and the mind mellow.

The Kingfisher Oceanside Resort & Spa in Courtenay boasts the novel
Pacific Mist Hydropath that exhilarates guests with a route from
showers to a lavender soaking pool, a massage pool, a steam cave,
a cold shower, and, finally, to a river walk. The skin-tingling
program of hydrotherapy, reflexology, body exfoliation, and seaweed
wrap induces blissful sleep.

Vancouver Area: Paradise for golfers
When late fall prompts golfers elsewhere in Canada to tuck away
their clubs, the Vancouver-area fairways remain green and joyfully
playable. The area abounds with championship courses, many within
an hour's drive of the city.

Even if you drive like the title character in Happy Gilmore, the
panoramic ocean views from Furry Creek Golf and Country club, where
the movie was filmed, are spectacular. It's just 45 minutes north
of Vancouver along the Sea to sky Highway.

Challenges galore await duffers at the Westwood Plateau Golf and
Country Club. Set high above Coquitlam on Eagle Mountain, about
45 minutes east of Vancouver, this course, ranked by Score magazine
as one of Canada's Top Ten Public courses, is a challenging succession
of undulating elevations marked by granite outcrops, thick Douglas
firs, and ravine hazards. Just 45 minutes southeast of Vancouver,
near Surrey, the championship Mayfair Lakes Golf and Country Club
hosts the Canadian Tour's Greater Vancouver Classic. Never mind
the bunkers and hazards of its demanding layout, distractions loom
with views of the lofty Coast Mountains and stretches of water.
The terrain is fair and challenging at the historic University Golf
Club at UBC, and its three signature holes will test your mettle.
But the rates are agreeable and, if your game tanks, there's always
the campus Museum of Anthropology.

Toronto: Culture buffs
Toronto sets a dynamic pace on the global cultural stage; this season
abounds with premiere productions and absorbing museum exhibits.
The Art Gallery of Ontario presents Modigliani: Beyond the Myth
(October 23 - January 23). The Royal Ontario Museum's dazzling international
exhibit Pearls: A Natural History (to January 9) features
rare objects. The CN Tower showcases The Secret life of Sets:
Set Decorators at Work (to January 2) with sets from The
Cat in the hat, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Spider-Man
2 among others. The Ontario Science Centre is a grandparents'
delight: little tykes tackle the interactive activities at KidSpark;
adults enjoy the IMAX domed theatre's films Forces of Nature
and Volcanoes of the Deep Sea (opening October 15). For unique
experiences, see the exquisite fabrics at the Textile Museum of
Canada, be photographed with the Stanley Cup at the Hockey Hall
of Fame, or step up to 4,500 years of fantastic footwear at the
Bata Shoe Museum.

See a different production every night in the Toronto Entertainment
District. Visit www.canstage.com
for a list of CanStage's satiric comedies at the Bluma Appel and
Berkeley Street Theatres. Visit www.Mirvish.com
for details on Mamma Mia at the Royal Alexandra Theatre,
Hairspray at The Princess of Wales Theatre (both to January
2), The Rat Pack: Frankie, Sammy and Dean at the Canon Theatre (Until
November 14), or A Couple of Blaguards at the Winter Garden
Theatre (October 26 - December 12). Buy discounted tickets for same-day
performances at the T.O. Tix ticket booth in Yonge-Dundas Square.

Quebec City: History aficionados
The most European city on the continent, Quebec city, founded in
1608, is notable as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the cradle
of French civilization in North America, as French descendents scattered
all the way south to New Orleans can trace their genealogy here.
In this eminently walkable city, history buffs will find much to
admire, from the architecture of the narrow cobbled streets to the
Plains of Abraham, where the British won the 1759 battle that altered
Canada's history indelibly. Numerous sites impart a sense of Quebec's
cultural heritage. Among them, the National Assembly, the Old Port,
the Citadel and fortifications, Battlefields Park, the Bois-de-Coulonge,
park de la Visitation, Cartier Brébeuf Park, Montmorency Falls Park,
Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré Basilica, Île d'Orléans, as well as the villages
of Cap-Santé, Neuville, and Deschambault in Portneuf, and the rue
du Trésor - now a hub for artists' exhibitions. Along the way, step
into a quaint bistro or café for a tasty local treat like onion
soup, pot au feu, or crêpes bretonnes. For charming accommodations
at budget-friendly rates, consider these three hotels: Auberge du
Trésor, Hôtel Manoir Victoria, Hotel Acadia. Looking for more luxury?
Consider Auberge Saint-Antoine or Hôtel Clarendon.